Fremantle are making history and Sydney are in danger of becoming history.

This much was clear on Saturday after the Dockers battered the Swans by 37 points in a slogging AFL encounter at the SCG, their first victory in the harbour city since 1996.

Shrugging off the distraction of Michael Johnson's cocaine-related arrest earlier in the week, Fremantle were better where it mattered, claiming a 32-point halftime advantage and ultimately winning 14.16 (100) to 9.9 (63).

Under skies that were first sunny, then grey, then rain-drenched, the Dockers again showed themselves to be a team on the rise in 2010, led expertly by captain Matthew Pavlich.

Their tackling was another standout feature, winning the count 97-76 to demonstrate what coach Mark Harvey called "malice".

"There's a lot of malice about our tackling. Sometimes we might not be strong enough because of the personnel, but it's the intent that's important," said Harvey.

"Obviously a lot of us weren't a part of it 14 years ago, in fact I don't think any of us were, so if we can keep breaking some insignificant barriers down that all help us towards being in the top four at this stage, we'll take it.

"We really held sway when they came at us, there were long periods of time when they had the ball around their forward 50m where we just managed to make it an even playing field without them getting any momentum."

There was a lack of application from the Swans, who have slid dramatically with a third consecutive loss.

"You certainly would (expect the effort to be there) and it's a concern, because we talked about it during the week, we talked about it last week," said coach Paul Roos.

"The most basic effort of playing a contact sport is effort, if you don't have effort you've got no chance to win, so I was really disappointed in the first half and talked about it at halftime.

"It's surprising but clearly we've got to find an answer to that quickly, because if you don't have effort you get beaten by everyone."

Pavlich did most of his damage in the first half when the game was won, ably supported by youngster Nathan Fyfe and the more seasoned duo of Paul Hasleby and David Mundy.

Though towering ruckman Aaron Sandilands won the majority of the hit-outs as expected, it was the contribution of his offsider Kepler Bradley that truly imbalanced the Swans.

"He plays awkward and sometimes he develops an awkward angle to the game, and he managed to do that at times," said Harvey.

"I guess it would be fair to say that he's unpredictable."

A bitter defeat was made worse for Sydney by injuries to Tadhg Kennelly, who appeared to damage his left knee in the first minute and was not seen again, and Daniel Bradshaw, seen icing a knee in the second half.

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